All living things are capable of:
1. Feeding
All living things need food for energy, growth and repair.
Wild animals need to work hard to find enough food to survive, while at the same time
avoiding predators who want to eat them! Life is easier for humans - we can buy or grow
all the food we need. Plants are different to both animals and people because they can
make their own food through photosynthesis. They do this by using energy from the Sun to
create food in the form of sugars and by absorbing water and nutrients from the soil.
All food chains start with a producer, usually a plant that can make its own food using the
Sun’s energy. Animals are consumers in the food chain because they eat other animals or
plants to survive. Without plants, animals and people could not exist.
A food chain follows a single path but a food web is more complex, with interconnected
pathways, e.g. in the food chain below the hawk eats the snake, but the hawk might also
eat the frog as shown in the food web.
2. Moving
People and animals move. Plants move too, but so slowly that we only notice their
movement over a period of time. Plants don’t need to move around in the way that animals
do because they can use sunlight to produce their own food by photosynthesis. Animals
have to be continually on the move, always on the look-out for food or ready to retreat in
the face of danger.
3. Growing
Living things are growing, repairing and renewing all the time. These processes occur by
cell division. When cells divide they specialise so they are adapted to carry out a particular
function, e.g. a foetus forms from a bundle of cells that divide and specialise into different
organs.
4. Reproducing
Life is finite. If living things did not reproduce, then life on Earth would quickly die out.
New plants grow from seeds, people and animals have babies. Reproduction of living
things often results in a miniature of the adult but much more exciting are the life
cycles of animals that undergo a metamorphosis, i.e. a transformation, where the young
change significantly on their way to becoming an adult – tadpoles to frogs, caterpillars to
butterflies, maggots to flies.
5. Breathing
Most living things need oxygen. Mammals and birds breathe in oxygen using their lungs
and breathe out carbon dioxide. Most fish breathe using gills. Amphibians and some small
water creatures, such as molluscs and earthworms, breathe in oxygen and filter out
carbon dioxide through their skin. Plants, on the other hand, do the opposite: they take in
carbon dioxide and give out oxygen.
6. Responding
Living things are aware of what is going on around them and respond accordingly. We
respond unconsciously when we enter a darkened room and our pupils grow larger but we
respond consciously when we have a conversation with our friends on the phone.
Living things are sensitive and non-living things are not. Green plants will grow towards
the sunlight. Sunflower heads turn to follow the Sun during the day (heliotropism). Dogs
can detect and distinguish thousands of smells. People can identify a huge range of
colours.
7. Removing waste
Excretion is common to everything that lives. Some of it is gaseous (carbon dioxide from
our lungs) and some is liquid and solid waste.
For some smaller animals, waste gases seep through their skin. With other animals and
humans, blood circulates oxygen and nutrients through the body to the cells and carries
away waste.
1. Feeding
All living things need food for energy, growth and repair.
Wild animals need to work hard to find enough food to survive, while at the same time
avoiding predators who want to eat them! Life is easier for humans - we can buy or grow
all the food we need. Plants are different to both animals and people because they can
make their own food through photosynthesis. They do this by using energy from the Sun to
create food in the form of sugars and by absorbing water and nutrients from the soil.
All food chains start with a producer, usually a plant that can make its own food using the
Sun’s energy. Animals are consumers in the food chain because they eat other animals or
plants to survive. Without plants, animals and people could not exist.
A food chain follows a single path but a food web is more complex, with interconnected
pathways, e.g. in the food chain below the hawk eats the snake, but the hawk might also
eat the frog as shown in the food web.
2. Moving
People and animals move. Plants move too, but so slowly that we only notice their
movement over a period of time. Plants don’t need to move around in the way that animals
do because they can use sunlight to produce their own food by photosynthesis. Animals
have to be continually on the move, always on the look-out for food or ready to retreat in
the face of danger.
3. Growing
Living things are growing, repairing and renewing all the time. These processes occur by
cell division. When cells divide they specialise so they are adapted to carry out a particular
function, e.g. a foetus forms from a bundle of cells that divide and specialise into different
organs.
4. Reproducing
Life is finite. If living things did not reproduce, then life on Earth would quickly die out.
New plants grow from seeds, people and animals have babies. Reproduction of living
things often results in a miniature of the adult but much more exciting are the life
cycles of animals that undergo a metamorphosis, i.e. a transformation, where the young
change significantly on their way to becoming an adult – tadpoles to frogs, caterpillars to
butterflies, maggots to flies.
5. Breathing
Most living things need oxygen. Mammals and birds breathe in oxygen using their lungs
and breathe out carbon dioxide. Most fish breathe using gills. Amphibians and some small
water creatures, such as molluscs and earthworms, breathe in oxygen and filter out
carbon dioxide through their skin. Plants, on the other hand, do the opposite: they take in
carbon dioxide and give out oxygen.
6. Responding
Living things are aware of what is going on around them and respond accordingly. We
respond unconsciously when we enter a darkened room and our pupils grow larger but we
respond consciously when we have a conversation with our friends on the phone.
Living things are sensitive and non-living things are not. Green plants will grow towards
the sunlight. Sunflower heads turn to follow the Sun during the day (heliotropism). Dogs
can detect and distinguish thousands of smells. People can identify a huge range of
colours.
7. Removing waste
Excretion is common to everything that lives. Some of it is gaseous (carbon dioxide from
our lungs) and some is liquid and solid waste.
For some smaller animals, waste gases seep through their skin. With other animals and
humans, blood circulates oxygen and nutrients through the body to the cells and carries
away waste.
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